Frank Catania Explains Why Teresa Giudice Was Texting Him at "4 O'Clock in the Morning"

When Teresa Giudice decided to compete in her first fitness competition, she turned to guidance from the pros. Among those to mentor the ultra-buff Real Housewives of New Jersey mom was Dolores Catania's ex-husband, Frank Catania. Frank has plenty of experience in the fitness-competition circuit, but told Page Six that he was blown away by Teresa's commitment and hard work. 

"Teresa is an animal and that’s in a good way,” the Jersey dad shared. “I did not think that Teresa had it in her. I didn’t think she was going to make it to the show. I’m not going to lie. She listened to every single thing I said and didn’t vary whatsoever. I would get text messages from her at 11:30 at night. I’d get text messages from her at 4 o’clock in the morning. I don’t think the woman ever slept. And in between all this, she’s taking care of her daughters and she’s obviously filming and handling all of her other ventures. I was pleasantly surprised by Teresa."

Frank also shared how he and Teresa first starting working together. "Dolores brought her to me when she was three and a half weeks out from her show,” he explained. “She had been training for about eight weeks before that and Teresa had lost like three pounds. And from looking at her the first time I looked at her she came to my office with Dolores, I asked her to get into a bikini let me take a look at her and Teresa still had close to 20 pounds to get rid of in order for her to be stage ready. So I gotta be honest, I never thought she was going to be ready. I never thought of that. So I found it as a hell of a challenge." 

Obviously, we now know that Teresa looked amazing onstage. But if you did a double take when you saw Frank's words about the always svelte Jersey pal needing to lose weight (we did!), know that he's not recommending she stay that thin indefinitely. 

"It is the most unhealthy sport out of every sport out there because what you have to do to your body and deplete your body of everything that it requires... So I would not recommend to anyone to continue it. And if you’re looking for a goal, you can do it to step on stage or do one, two, three, four shows over a period of time. But to try to do it consistently over the year to that extent is unhealthy," Frank said.